Silk, satin and desire
by Neera Pendragon
Summary: When you have lost everything, sometimes you could find a place, hidden in the myst, where you'll find that maybe losing everything was the best thing could happen to you. ShaoYuui, AU


**Title:** Silk, Satin and Desire

**Pairing:** Shaoron Li/Yuui D. Flourite

**Rating: **NWS (Not Worksafe)

**Genre:** Yaoi, Mystery, AU, Fluff, supernatural

**Beta (and translator): **Akitochiaki

**Warnings: (**canon pairing!*shot*) , porn, light crossover with Good Omens (©Gaiman-Pratchett) 3

**Prompt: **Written for the 4th challenge (porn-fluff or "horizontal" fluff) of the Fluffathon, announced by fanfic_italia. Prompt for the ShaoYuui Big Damn Table.

**Word count: **4000+

**Disclaimer: **These are CLAMP characters, so kneel before the four sadists that invented them.

**Author's Notes: **Hooray for pralines... And... Yeah. I'm terribly loquacious when writing AU one-shots.

* * *

Pale blue lights ran about the whole length of the room, sporadically stroking the patrons' glasses, following the rhythm of music in the background.  
No-one spoke loudly; at most, every now and then one could hear a laugh, usually feminine, coming from the private lounges.  
The barman cleaned the last of the still-wet glasses, setting it on a shelf with the rest.  
Just as he put it down, the bell at the entrance rang with a distinct tingle. The quiet stillness of the club broke, while its owner came to greet the new customer.  
Shaoron noticed that Yuuko had changed clothes for the umpteenth time; a fact that made his hands feel strange, as if they were itching in prevision of something really violent. His common sense forced him to stop, explaining that he wouldn't gain much from getting upset at the woman. If he wanted to keep his job, he'd better stay silent.  
The new patron, however, didn't seem to be in the right mood to chat: opening his wet trench coat, he ran a hand through his hair, made humid by the rain.  
It was only at that point that the barman realized it was raining, in Tokyo.  
Not that the notion surprised him.  
During the present season rainfalls were frequent, outside the club.  
In the owner's opinion, they drew in more customers and, consequently, more money.

***

Every time Yuui entered that place, he felt like all his worries could disappear in the blink of an eye.  
The bell at the door always welcomed him with the same tingle, while the black wooden door closed behind him with a feeble squeak.  
Not unlike many other clubs, it had tables near the windows or in dim light. There were a pool table, which was rarely used, lamps which shone with a peculiar azure hue hung on the walls, and evergreen plants cared for with the utmost dedication. Peacock blue curtains hid lounges in the farthest zone from the door, and at the centre stood a rectangular bar, with bottles of every shape and colour displayed on each shelf. It was a quiet environment, familiar in a way, especially for the constant presence of a bartender, who didn't look any older than sixteen.

He didn't come often.  
Only every now and then, when he seemed to succumb to a deep depression which he rarely spoke of. He would sit at the bar, ask for a hot tea (strictly Earl Gray), and stay there sipping it for more than an hour, not uttering a single word.  
By now, Shaoron knew by heart every single detail about that person: how he kept his hair, how he raised the glass, how he sent wistful glances in his direction without any apparent reason. The bartender would do nothing but work in front of him, washing glasses, drying tableware, mixing cocktails with the nimble movements of a professional. When he saw the blond looking particularly down, he started one of his juggler routines, throwing and twirling bottles to prepare a Blue Star or a Southern Beach, the pub's most popular alcoholic drinks.  
Thus, the always silent patron would smile, holding his head in his hands to watch him. Shaoron would wink, the other would laugh, clearly relieved of his sorrows.  
His name was Yuui.  
He knew nothing else.  
Apart from the fact that he had a small mole just under his right ear.

***

Lacking the courage to sit alone at a table to think, Yuui often seated himself on one of the leather stools in front of the bar, following the movements of that serene-looking boy. By then, he did it without even thinking about it.  
He had never talked to him, for fear of bothering him.  
Yet, sometimes he felt soothed by that silent presence. Maybe it was the way he smiled at him, maybe it was the calm with which he prepared his usual Earl Gray.  
He didn't know anything about him, but somehow he felt that the young man wasn't an ordinary person.  
Often, to distract himself, he remained at the pub for hours, fantasizing about his identity:  
A stranger arrived from a faraway land...  
A boy escaped from his own family...  
An angel coming to assist him in the darkest hours...  
He wondered who he was.  
And the sadness in his heart disappeared, leaving only a vague sense of expectation.

« I've never asked for your name... »  
The bartender stopped, taken aback. He turned towards the blond, who had only been there for a few minutes, and laid his usual teacup in front of him, without showing the surprise he felt.  
It was the first time he'd ever talked to him.  
« Shaoron. » he introduced himself, starting to clean a pitcher to take his mind off it.  
« My name is Yuui. »  
Smiling, the boy turned, walking away from the patron, fetching a bowl of pralines that Yuuko-san told him to offer to that person, if he ever decided to speak. The reason for this wasn't very clear to him, but he had learnt a long time ago that ignoring the owner's words was an awful idea. Unlike the waiter who worked there part-time, Watanuki, Shaoron was there the whole day, and that allowed him to notice many of the pub's peculiarities. The deathly hush, the warm temperature, the windows showing a landscape different from what was outside. No customer ever seemed to pay attention to it.  
Nevertheless, Shaoron knew well that whoever entered the Shai no Kai always had very different things on their mind.

Head sustained by his palm, Yuui watched inquisitively the young man as he laid the pralines in front of him. He shifted in an upright position, taking one of the dark brown spheres with both hands.  
« Why? » He asked simply, intrigued by the gesture.  
« It's what I was told to do. » the barman explained tautly, cleaning some cups from the coffee they had contained.  
« By whom, may I ask? »  
« The shop's owner. »  
From far away, they heard a sardonic laugh, probably feminine, that left the blond slightly puzzled.  
He turned back to Shaoron, who had a very pleased smile on his face. « That was her. » he explained, opening the tap to rinse the cutlery from the soap.  
Yuui stared at the praline in his hand one last time, dubious, and swallowed it, despite the alarm bell ringing inside him.

***

By the time Yuui had left the pub, the bowl was empty.  
In a few minutes, Yuuko appeared from her private lounge, dressed in a black dress that accentuated the pallor of her skin:  
« So, how did it go? »  
Preparing cocktails for the patrons of table 69, Shaoron pretended not to hear her, just to make that sly smile disappear from her face.  
The strategy started working in about three seconds.  
« Shaoshao, I want to know, tell aunt Yuuko! » the woman grumbled, taking the glasses away from under the bottle just as he started to pour vodka in them.  
The boy sighed, aggravated, as the liquid meant to end up in the containers halted mid-air. A nod from Shaoron, and the liquor stopped defying gravity, going back to its bottle.  
« Yuuko-san. » he protested, annoyed, taking one glass from her.  
The woman giggled, raising her hands in surrender.  
« My humble apologies! »  
« Only a fool would believe your apologies... »

Yuui had been working for a few months as a sous-chef, in a French Ritz that had just opened in Ikebukuro.  
Having studied and trained in Italy to become a cook with a capital "C", his curriculum had earned him the favour of many people. Everyone, from friends to family, had congratulated with him for his undoubted success, with the exception of his partner.  
Mira had Greek heritage, and she had moved to Japan looking for a job in architectural engineering. They had met during a celebratory event held by the mayor of Tokyo himself, and between drinks they told each other many things. The following day, Yuui had found himself in bed, naked, with the woman sleeping beside him. From that moment on, they had never parted. The blond had never thought about whether he loved her or it was just physical attraction. His brother had often told him that he was making a mistake, but Yuui had refused to accept reality.  
When Mira had left, behind her only a simple note and an empty house, the blond had had to face the truth.  
They had just been together to ward off loneliness.  
At that time, when all his certainties had crumbled down, he'd found that bar.  
He had never noticed it before, but it stood between a building owned by the Imonoyama family and a temple consecrated to Amaterasu.  
Unlike many other clubs in Tokyo, it showed off a very unique style on the outside, like a small-scaled palace. Completely white, it was practically impossible to miss; yet, never had he seen it before Mira's disappearance.

***

A disrupting wind shook Tokyo, as the lights of the Shai no Kai flickered for a moment before changing colour. The pub's appearance changed just slightly, the atmosphere becoming gentle, warm, welcoming.  
Watanuki stared at Shaoron with a disgruntled expression, as the other nodded.  
« He had said so. » said another waiter, sighing. « Is everything really this ineffable? »  
« You can try to change your destiny, but what must happen will happen, whether you want it or not. » Shaoron explained, pouring hot water in porcelain-white teapots.  
The other fiddled nervously with the apron he wore, nodding.  
All those who worked in that place knew that there was no way to contrast the flow of events. Doing it would only make things worse.  
The bell tingled for the first of many times, that day.

Filled with utter embarrassment, Yuui opened the door and entered the pub, noticing many more customers than he'd ever seen in his previous visits. For the first time, he saw waiters serving at the tables and that did nothing but make him even more nervous.  
He hid what he'd brought behind his back, stalling at the doorway. A friendly face was looking at him, smiling in amusement. He felt the urge to flee as soon as he saw him, but he tried to restrain himself. Shaoron may have looked like a polite and righteous person, but the fact that a month before he'd made him eat pralines with strong alcohol inside them still remained.  
From that day on, the blond had felt absurdly self-conscious every time he set foot in the pub. He couldn't quite understand why and he didn't have the nerve to talk with someone else about it. How could he explain that, from time to time, he entered a place that no-one ever noticed and sat there talking for hours on end with an extremely sarcastic bartender for whom he'd discovered he felt something?  
Maybe his brother would've understood him, but Fay's world was far too unearthly to be taken into consideration.  
A patron raised to his feet, staggering, from a nearby table and Yuui got closer to offer him help, getting his mind back to the present. When he went to support him by his arm, he heard Shaoron scream something at the top of his lungs, as the world suddenly went completely dark.

***

He saw him hesitate, focus on the present, notice an old man raising and staggering on his legs. Yuui's hands went to sustain him and Shaoron's body was shaken by an horrified chill: « DON'T! » he shouted.  
At the same time he dumped the cloth he'd been holding, leaping over the bar to catch him before he fell to the ground.  
Aziraphale quickly moved the elderly patron away, staring at Shaoron.  
He was holding Yuui's body to his chest, looking at nothing.  
« Shaoron. » he called.  
He received no answer.  
« Shaoron Li, get up and take him to the white room. »  
Yuuko's imperious figure stood beside them, watching the situation with vacuity.  
The bartender nodded, taking Yuui's limp body in his arms.  
« Try to give him as much energy as possible. » the woman ordered once more.  
A last assenting gesture and the boy disappeared behind one of the peacock-blue curtains, trying to get a hold of himself.

The scent of vanilla, mixed with cinnamon and cardamom.  
Sweet, but not too much so.  
Yuui laid his head more comfortably on that pillow, lulled by something not even he could define.  
He felt peaceful, secure, surrounded in heat.  
Was he under the sun?  
Was he on holiday?  
« No... » a voice said, reading his mind.  
Where was he, then?  
« You could open your eyes and find it out, no? » the voice quipped, provoking a sense of annoyance mixed with embarrassment he was by now familiar with.  
« Shaoron. »  
« Ah-ha... You just won a thousand yen. »  
« What a pittance. »  
« Bitter old lady... »  
« CUT IT OFF! »  
« If you keep screaming like that, everyone will hear you. »  
Yuui knitted his brows, unable to fathom whether he was talking or simply thinking. He ran his hands over his face, massaging his eyebrows with utmost slowness. When he opened his eyes, he found himself staring a pristine-white ceiling, seemingly made of an opalescent material.  
« Where am I...? »  
« You know the lounges I told you about, the ones behind those curtains? »  
Yuui nodded, without noticing from where the boy's voice was coming.  
An hand stroked his hair, with its delicate touch: « We're in one of them... » Shaoron explained, leaning forward to let the blond see him. « And in this exact moment your head is comfortably resting on my knees. »  
The blond felt his cheeks catch on fire, and sat upright to get out of that position. He thus noticed the reason for which the ceiling had seemed to glow, as if prey of strange reflexes of light: surrounding the enormous round bed on which they were laying, there were shelves upon shelves crowded with lit candles and gemstones of every colour. Every here and there, a glass bottle, one for every colour of the rainbow, or a bowl full of chocolates, similar to those Shaoron had offered him on Valentine's Day.  
Which reminded him of why he'd come here today.  
He turned towards Shaoron, trying to ask what had happened. The boy grazed the tip of his nose with a red rose, the same one with which he'd entered the Shai no Kai a few hours before.  
« Is it for me? » the bartender asked, tilting his head and moving the flower to the blonde's right cheek.  
Yuui's heart skipped a beat, depriving his brain of oxygen. « What? » he asked, in panic.  
Again the red petals grazed his nose, then moving a lock of hair to the side of his face.  
« I'm talking about this wonderful rose... » Shaoron commented, slyly.  
« I thought... I... didn't know what to give you in return. »  
The boy stared at him, dubious, crossing his legs:  
« In return? »  
« For the chocolates... The ones you gave me on Valentine's Day... » he excused himself, trying to ignore the thrills caused by the other's light strokes.  
The rose brushed against his lips, making him completely dizzy.  
He raised his eyes towards Shaoron, noticing that the other was genuinely surprised:  
« I had forgotten about that. »  
A sudden disappointment overtook him: he should have expected it. Shaoron could never feel what he felt. Apart from their few meetings, their leading different lives, their knowing so little about each other... Nothing bound them together.  
« Yuui-san? » the other called, willing him to raise his chin with the flower he was still holding.  
Making to look at him in the eyes, Yuui couldn't help his awkwardness at the situation. He had been a fool.  
« Maybe it's best for me to go... » he explained, smiling forcedly.  
Shaoron shook his head, leaning forwards to graze his lips against his own. For a brief, unreal instant.  
« I'd rather you stay here. » the brunet explained, whispering to his ear.  
Yuui turned to look at him, incredulous.  
The other was smelling the rose, as if he wanted to lose himself in that scent: « You really bought it for me... » he observed, smiling.  
Hesitating, Yuui lowered his gaze, toying with his hands as he looked for the right answer. What was happening? Had he imagined it? Had they really kissed? Why had the boy done that?  
All those questions crowded his mind, preventing him from finding a rational answer. He looked around, seeing once more that room, unusual, mysterious, provocative. Then that bed with its satin quilt. Red satin, contrasting with the peacock-blue silk curtains. An ornate place, in which Shaoron seemed to settle comfortably, at ease.  
« What is it I don't know about you? » he asked suddenly, not holding his tongue back.  
Shaoron raised his eyes on him, donning a sarcastic smirk: « A lot of things, to tell the truth. »  
« Care to make an example? »  
A moment of silence. The young man dropped the rose to his side, taking Yuui's fingers between his own two hands.  
« I am a beholder angel. My task is to work in this place, where all those who passed away can enter and take on a corporeal form, thus finding the reality they lost with their death. It happens sometimes that someone loses their will to live and comes to Shai no Kai, looking for themselves. Yuuko-san is our guide, she decides who among us can help that kind of people. In your case...- his hands stopped for an instant, nervous - … I am the one to stay close to you... »  
« Are you doing it because it's your duty? » the blond asked, horrified, avoiding the other's hands.  
Shaoron shook his head, chuckling: « Right now, not at all... » he explained, running a hand through his hair.  
« I don't believe in angels! »  
« Okay... »  
« I don't want to die! »  
« I know... »  
« Then why are you telling me this nonsense? »  
The brunet kept quiet, looking away from him.  
A strange sensation of guilt wrapped around him, similar to the denial of oneself. A contraction of his stomach that almost made him throw up.  
« Shaoron... »  
The other kissed him, making him fall flat on his back with the force of his gesture.

***

What do angels need to do, to make humans happy?  
To look over them from afar, protect them, grant them their own good, like an ordinary bodyguard.  
What was the meaning of true love, deprived of its every human spark, its warmness, its wonderful emotions?  
Shaoron wasn't one for that kind of thoughts.  
Unlike him, Aziraphale and Watanuki were.  
They kept talking about the beauty of humans, about their wits, about their force, about their power.  
They exalted human history, their philosophy, their great scientific knowledge, not giving any weight to the fact that a big part of it was created to negate His existence.  
The boy thus had never managed to love any one of them with the same passion.  
However Yuuko tried to tell him he too would yield one day, nothing had made him change his point of view.  
Then, one day, Yuui had entered his life.

***

The flames of the candles trembled, feeling the change in atmosphere between the two.  
The blown glass bottles, closed until that moment by beautiful caps of the same cut, released thin fumes about the room, changing vanilla to chocolate, cinnamon to mint, cardamom to rose.  
The blonde held tight onto his partner by the neck, letting their tongues play in every possible way, brushing, clashing, triumphing on each other.  
Shaoron's leg between his own gave him throbs of pleasure every time he moved by a few inches, making him long for more. More contact, more harmony, more torture.  
He returned that interminable kiss, breathing in the brief moments in which their lips separated. And yet something told him that, if only he believed it, Shaoron would become his oxygen, not in a banal, romantic way, but literally.  
An angel...  
He loved an angel and he couldn't find nothing wrong in what they were doing.  
Shaoron nipped at a corner of his mouth, admonishing him to come back to the present situation.  
An hand crept up the back of his head, tangling in his loose hair:  
« Yuui... » he called, in a whisper almost covered by the burning of the candles.  
The blond couldn't find the other's lips anymore, so he was forced to open his eyes, though reluctantly.  
He saw the boy holding a bowl of pralines in one hand, while the other only had a single chocolate:  
« Open your mouth... »  
« Why...? »  
« I want more than simple kisses... »  
« I do, too » he found himself answering.  
Shaoron bent his lips in a sarcastic smile, then ate the brown sphere he had between his fingers. Yuui stood watching, bewitched, not quite understanding why.  
When the other offered him a chocolate, he leaned forwards to take it in this mouth, savouring the taste mixed with the new scent that floated in the air in place of the previous one.

Languid abandon overtook him, loosening every block in his body. All of a sudden, the world looked so simple, so tender, so fragile. Nothing that he saw could graze him now. There were no more only five, lowly senses. Now he was seeing a new reality, luminous, magnificent. And he loved. He loved everything he could lay his eyes on.  
More than anything else, he loved that creature shrouded in white, whose gaze seemed to be lost in the antiquity of time.  
He went to kiss him, feeling an infinite heat wrap fill his soul, noticing that before, hindered by his own fears, he hadn't had the chance to take in every single detail.  
Shaoron's warm lips contrasted his own, cold in comparison.  
Their tangled hands touched beyond the epidermis, brushing against the muscles, until they reached their bones. Giving something that went over every simple human conception.  
The vapours coming from the bottles started to twirl around them, grazing their clothes, reaching uncovered skin and making it soft, oiling it, like an ordinary perfume.  
Shaoron kissed his neck, getting a moan out of him. The angel's hands opened the blonde's shirt, bringing it down to his shoulders, as his lips grazed his left collarbone, moving on to the right, gentle, seraphic.  
Devoid of the embarrassment that would have surely caught him before, Yuui stripped him of his clothes, with the same patience, the same care, the same kindness.  
There was desire, it floated in the air, together with feeble lights and a myriad of exhalations.  
At every uncovered inch of skin, a game of lips, a flick of the tongue.  
And so, slowly, with the favour of time, they got rid of every piece of clothing, ending up naked in front of one another.  
The satin under them now felt rough, compared to their skin.  
Yuui lay down, dragging Shaoron on top of him.  
Desire.  
He felt filled by it, like never before.  
He kissed those lips, while his partner wrapped a trail of smoke around his fingers, then crept slowly down his body, towards his destination. Suddenly, pain caught the blond, tensing his muscles, but as soon as the other started to calmly move those fingers the pain became voluptuousness, temptation, longing.  
In the silence of their panting, Shaoron entered his partner, with all the gentleness he could muster.  
He kissed Yuui's lips, holding his sides up to avoid him pain.  
Their tongues started battling once more, following the rhythm of their bodies.  
A gasp of pleasure and they both came, as the blond hurt the other's lower lip.

***

Supine, the angel savoured the scent of the other one, who lay on top of him.  
Yuui combed his hair with both hands, head tilted, on his face an expression so calm to rival his own.  
The room was now clear of the fog of the vapours and the fire from the candles had died off, leaving them in the dark.  
Well, not entirely so.  
« It looks like light emanates from you... » the blond remarked, leaning down to kiss him lightly.  
Shaoron let a sarcastic smile slip on his mouth, making his partner blush violently. He took his chin between his fingers and brought their lips together, willing the other's embarrassment to fade away.  
« It comes from you, too, you just can't see it... »  
Yuui nuzzled his chest, closing his eyes: « I love you... »  
« I love you too, Yuui... »  
« Why do I feel like a "but" is coming? » he laughed nervously, hooking a hand to the angel's hip.  
« Because you are a human being, prey of your mind and victim of your fears. If only you could see the beauty of your soul, you would understand that you have nothing to be afraid of. This is why I love you, and why I keep loving you even when you fear my abandonment. »  
« You and I are different... »  
« Not any more. »  
The blond suddenly raised his gaze towards the other, incredulous.  
Shaoron was smiling calmly: « Now the angel has fallen in the arms of his little God, he will never leave Him. Because to Him he is loyal, in Him he believes, for Him he loves. »  
Tears filled Yuui's eyes, as he made to kiss that magnificent creature, thanking the Heavens for how much they had done for him.  
« ANGEL! »  
The two jumped, staring at the wall from which they had heard the voice.  
A series of noises came from the lounge next to theirs, utterly disrupting and, to tell the truth, explicit. Yuui and Shaoron looked at each other, perplexed, trying to make sense of it.  
« Really, my dear... You're making too much noise... » they heard, as a reprimand.  
Shaoron put an hand in front of his mouth, trying not to laugh.  
Yuui knitted his brows in confusion.  
« Aziraphale. » the other explained, distracting him with a last kiss.


End file.
